Onshore ballast water treatment: a viable option for major ports.

Ballast water treatment consists of the elimination of exotic species. Currently, the development of alternative methods for this process is directed toward treatment onboard ships. However, we present onshore treatment as a viable alternative for ballast water treatment. We investigated onshore treatment in two iron ore ports with movement capacities of 25 and 90 million tons annually (Mta) that receive 7.5 and 25 million cubic meters annually (Mm(3)) of ballast water, respectively. Discrete event simulation was used as the method of analysis, considering the processes of arrival, berthing, ship loading and capture and treatment of ballast water. We analyzed data from 71 ships operating in these ports to validate our simulation model. We were able to demonstrate that onshore treatment does not impact the cargo capacity, occupation rate or average queuing time of ships at these ports. We concluded that implementation of onshore ballast water treatment may be practicable in ports that receive high volumes of ballast water.